104. © How to manage Bees in Winter. 
knowledge, that, in a mild winter; they do eat 
more food than in a cold one, when they can- 
not get out; but this, as well as the fine air, 
contributes greatly to their health ; befides that 
they hatch earlier, and confequently increafe 
the number of bees in the hives fooner. The 
fact is, that experience, which is preferable to 
the conjectural reafoning of the moft eminent 
authors, may convince any perfon, that many 
more bees die in fevere winters than in mild 
ones. In winter 1776 which was very cold, 
a great number of Bee-hives perifhed ; and alfo 
during laft winter, (1794- 5) being an exceflive- 
- ly 
and let them be kept equally cold with thofe in hives that con- 
tam both honey and bees, and a trial of eight or ten days will 
convince him, that honey, and not co/d,is the proper food of 
bees. 
In the very midft of a ‘evere froft, I have often feen my hives 
with young broods in them; a fure fign, that they were neith-. 
er meotionlefs, nor in a ftate of inactivity. This fa@ alfo proves 
how greatly miftaken many authors are, who affert, that bees do 
not breed, till they begin to carry home loads in: fpring. I am 
confident, that there is not a month in the whole year, in which 
Thave not feen many of my hives, with fome eggs as well as 
young bees in the cells; although there are at leaft four months 
in the year in which the bees carry home no loads. I will al- 
low, however, that although they do breed fome in winter, the 
number is very fmall. Perhaps the Queen does not lay above 
three or four eggs in a day, whereas in fummer the will lay daily 
above a hundred. 
